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Disney Confirms Frozen‘s Broadway Theater & More

September 27th, 2016 | By Imogen Lloyd Webber

The rumors were true. We now have official confirmation from Disney Theatricals that Tony and Olivier Award-winning director Michael Grandage and his longtime collaborator, Tony and Olivier Award-winning scenic and costume designer Christopher Oram, have been tapped for the Broadway-bound Frozen.They replace Alex Timbers and other creative team members who recently departed the production.

We also now know for sure that when the new musical based on Disney’s Oscar-winning musical lands, as originally scheduled, on Broadway in spring 2018, it will open at the St. James Theatre (which will have a new back wall). As previously reported, Frozen is set to play its out-of-town tryout at the Buell Theatre in the Denver Center for the Performing Arts in August 2017.

Grandage’s Olivier-winning musicals include Merrily We Roll Along, Grand Hotel and Guys & Dolls. He received a Tony Award for Best Direction for Red and two Tony nominations for Best Direction for Frost/Nixon and The Cripple of Inishmaan. His biggest Broadway musical to date was the 2012 revival of Evita. Grandage is confirmed to direct 20th Century Fox’s film remake of Guys & Dolls. Oram received Oliviers for Power and Wolf Hall, and Tonys for his work on Wolf Hall and Red.

Frozen is written by a trio of Oscar winners. As previously announced, the show features music and lyrics by the creators of the film score Kristen Anderson-Lopez (In Transit, Up Here) and EGOT-winner Robert Lopez (Avenue Q, The Book of Mormon, Up Here) and a book by Jennifer Lee (Wreck-It Ralph), the film’s screenwriter and director (with Chris Buck). Frozen won 2014 Oscars for Best Song (“Let It Go”) and Best Animated Feature.